Progressive rock and the Ship of Theseus: From Gong Est Mort to “The Dream is Always the Same”

In the ancient Greek historian and biographer Plutarch’s Life of Theseus, a story is told about a ship which has had every part of its timber replaced, sparking a thought experiment about whether the resulting ship made of all new timber can be regarded as the same ship as the original. It is a thought experiment that was later taken up by others, including the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, the 20th century American philosopher David Lewis, and in popular British culture as Trigger’s Broom – a moment in the television programme Only Fools and Horses, where the road sweeper character Trigger, who has just been awarded by his employer for using the same broom for twenty years admits that it is has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles in that time. This story has resonance in the history of progressive rock where long-lived groups have had numerous line-ups over the years, and some now exist with no original members at time. Examples of the latter include the current version of the band Gong whose founding members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth died in 2015 and 2016 respectively, and the current version of Tangerine Dream, whose founder Edgar Froese died in 2015. Both of these groups have continued without any original members to not only perform older material in a live setting but to write and release brand new music under the respective band names. This presentation will draw on ideas relating to the thought experiment of the Ship of Theseus to question notions of authenticity, heritage and nostalgia, and to consider the reception of fans to the continuation of these bands. It also asks whether we shall see more bands (as brands) continue in this fashion in the future.